How long can the comp be on?!

Computer Hardware and electronics in general.
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Lyecdevf
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How long can the comp be on?!

Post by Lyecdevf »

I have been told a long time ago that it is not good to turn on the computer like five times per day or to leave it on for a whole day. Is that true or can it be turned on for 24 hours per day?

What are some other bad things that you should not do to your computer? So far I have not yet had any trouble but I am just asking for future reference!
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Post by bad_brain »

well, as long as the airflow in the box is good and there are no general cooling problems it's even better to let the system run permanently (at least in theory). because when switching it on there can be power peaks which shorten the lifetime of the electronic parts....but well, it makes no sense now to think "I'll never turn my box off now anymore" because other parameters like cooling and quality of the parts affect the lifetime much more...
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Post by Stavros »

Like bad_brain said, as long as you have adequate cooling it'll be ok. Just open a window from time to time...your computer can heat up the whole room....I've been using mine as a space heater for my room (since the nights have been colder) and with a broadband connection it just doesn't make sense to turn it off at night, especially when I have a big file I'm trying to download so it won't interfere with my brother's gaming or my dads web-surfing.

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Post by computathug »

my last pc i had was a p4 with 2024k ram and a 80 gig hdd which filled up quite fast =P. It also had a crappy 64k gfx card. In the 3 yrs i had this machine i bet it was only ever turned off about 10 times which was probably because i was tidying cables etc. Check what temperature the pc is running at from time to time. Run a few programs at once which take up plenty of the systems resources and see if the system can handle temperature rises. I have a front system fan and a rear fan running but also check the airflow. it maybe better to have one pulling and one sucking to have a recirculating air system.

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be smooth, gimmie power

Post by DNR »

I think the major consideration would be the power supply to the machines. The idea is to have a smooth power level with no surges and lows. The power supply should be more than adequate for all the devices, right down to the hd and cdrw power supply.

Electronics abuse like power surges and dips ( is your 31" tv on the same interior wall power line? the 1000watt microwave?) I live in a area prone to lightening strikes, so I have to power down when storms approach - the best power surge will never stop a lightening strike.
l
Get a Back-up power supply for the machines - they not only store power to give you 30 minutes to boot down in case power is lost on the power grid, but they provide that smooth, even power level - filtered from outside power fluctuations. But still power down in a electrical storm.
In this case, the power surge of turning your computer on/off is better than getting fried in a lightening hit.

Look inside your box, are the wiring tied in to bundles and tucked in? You can actually visually map your airflow route, make sure nothing is blocking it. You are primarily worried about cooling the motherboard.
(I haven't seen a lot heat from CD/HDs , anybody?) The power supply inside the box is also a heat monster, it has its own fan usually. Make sure that you didn't install a new CDRW, a HD RAID, and DVD player without checking your power supply limits - cheap boxes have cheap power supplys. I did install another fan inside my favorite box (AMD chipset) I had to cut away some plastic, and hot glue it. That old box is still alive (1992 circa) If I start it up again, I'd replace the power supply as they inherently go bad (they burn up due to your home's power supply surge/lows) Oh, one more point - do not leave the cover off your boxes thinking that will make it cooler, it is the same reason you need a hood on your car - the air flow is directed to the ridges, low points on the motherboard, rather than diffused in the open box. You have to force the air around the mother board. Also you don't need dust, spiders, and cats crawling into your box (had all of them).


Real server rooms are sealed from outside elements like dust and heat, they are airconditioned to remove heat from the machines, they have Halon Fire systems. They have their own power supply/back-up. And they don't have a microwave plugged in nearby.

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Post by n3rd »

lol my comp is on 24/7 unless its forced to reboot by windows, and if I need to reboot manually for installation. and Ive been doing this for the past 4 years XD.
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Post by Lyecdevf »

I was thinking of dedicating one computer to torrent use. So I would keep that one on during the whole day and even the night.
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Post by n3rd »

thats what I do, although I have noticed that my pc is so old and my screen is so big ( thus the reason i only dl mkv hidef files ) I cant run both of the processes at the same time... so is this a sign my computer is getting outdated XD.
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